Disciples II: Servants of the Dark

Servants of the Dark (SotD) is a stand alone expansion pack with a new advanced campaign for high-level characters and a number of new quests as well as containing the original game, but really the only thing of note that is new in this product are the missions.  No new characters, no new spells, just new missions.  The real kicker is that it only feels like half of a gold edition re-release of the game, since there is just so little that is new about this expansion pack.  With that comes a tough decision for both fans of the series and green rookies.  Considering that gamers can buy Dark Prophecy for a song these days, and the lack of substantial newness all divided over two games that run for about $20US each, it’s very hard to recommend this expansion pack.  Unless you are a huge fan of Disciples II, getting SotD isn’t worth it considering there’s a far beefier, not to mention less expensive alternative readily available.

insanely jealous of the elven god dumping her and is now unleashing her forces in an effort to utterly wipe out the elves, one of the elven god’s most cherished creations (go figure).

The gameplay in SotD is just the same as in Dark Prophecy.  It’s certainly not a bad thing, as the battles and tech tree were top notch there.  The most notable tweak in the battles in SotD is that players can now automatically resolve them.  It’s a very handy addition, so you don’t have to manually trudge through some of the easier battles, instead bringing them to a swift end.  There is some frustration that comes in playing the high level campaigns in the game though.  Most notably is that you need a hero that is at least of level 10 in order to play them.  Now, most people who have Dark Prophecy have likely long since uninstalled the game, summarily kissing their buffed heroes goodbye.  Thankfully Strategy First kept this in mind, as they have included some powerful heroes on the game disc for players to use instead of playing the whole game over again to import them.  The problem comes in that the heroes are hidden on the disc and you need to trudge through the game’s readme file in order to track them down.  It would have been nice to actually have them setup in the game’s options menu so players don’t have to jump through these needless hoops to get on track for the high-level campaigns.  Also  a pain is that players can only transfer one hero over to the next mission still, so they must once more start from scratch with their basic units and build them up.  This becomes a royal pain when you consider that you’re surrounded by incredibly strong enemies at every turn in the high-level campaigns, who will often mop the floor with your new company of rookies.  It isn’t the end of the world, though, since in the grand scheme of things the new missions are still manageable.  Just be prepared for some frustrating routings now and then.

The visuals of the game have not by any means gotten long in the tooth since Dark Prophecy was released a year ago.  The art has definitely withstood the test of time, really standing apart from a lot of games out there.  The music and sound is just as good as it has ever been too, though it is disappointing that the voice-overs are gone before each mission.

By and large, SotD just doesn’t bring enough to the table.  The new missions are fun, but the fact that this expansion has been divided from it’s evil counterpart and the overall sense of the game actually being Disciples II Gold Edition 0.5 makes the game feel like a gyp when you can get so much more out of the original Disciples II for a fraction of the cost.  And for those of you who are ardent fans of Disciples II and would like to go on more missions, waiting for a price drop or for SotD to start popping up in the Used Bin at the game stores may be the best option, because this game just isn’t a $20US value.

- Mr. Nash

(August 10, 2003)